Progress

I am continuing to work on my abstract project. I am trying to connect human traits (and/or emotions) with line, shape, and color. I am not using any representational images. I am trying to communicate through only the three mentioned compositional tools. I don't want to be able to look at the images and say, "That is a wonderful lake or What a nice sunset". Those things have their place and can create wonderful mood or feeling, but what I am trying to do is reveal a mood, not create one. I am doing this by using something called a Buddha Board.

A Buddha Board is a piece of material much like an old fashioned slate. When I paint on it with water, it looks like it has been painted on with ink. The lines then dry and fade away to nothing and you can start again. It is a bit like an etch-a-sketch in that regard. I am not touching the brush to the board. I am creating patterns and lines by throwing water off the brush or off my fingers or anything I can think of. Once I get a pattern that I want to use, I photograph the board. Then the work begins.

I take the images of the board and put them through all kinds of photo manipulation using Photoshop, OnOne Software, and, occasionally, Lightroom. I try to find an emotion or feeling and apply the colors that I think will help reveal that feeling. The only limits are those set by the software. Everything else is fair game. I want the feeling of total freedom.

What will result will be a set of images that will reveal various aspects ourselves. These will be images that will be called "modern art' or 'contemporary art" or "what the heck is that". That is not my concern. My concern is to stretch my ideas and abilities. That is the whole point of this project.

I will be putting the results on this site whenever the set is ready. I hope they mean something.